1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to mounting brackets, and in particular, to mounting brackets for mounting computer equipment in frames.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer equipment is typically mounted in frames that contain two pairs of mounting rails, one pair near the front of the frame, and another pair near the back. An example of such a frame is a standardized EIA 310-D frame. An EIA 310-D frame's mounting fixture includes two pairs of parallel rails standing vertically. Each rail is 0.625 inches wide and each pair of rails is separated by a gap of 17.75 inches, giving the frame an overall width of 19 inches. The rails have matching holes in them spaced at regular intervals, so that each pair of holes on a corresponding pair of rails has a center-to-center distance of 18.3 inches.
Rack-mountable equipment is typically mounted by bolting the front panel of the equipment to the frame. For example, brackets can be attached to the front sides of the equipment and bolted to the front pair of rails via respective holes. To stabilize the equipment, brackets are also used to mount the back sides of the equipment to the back pair of rails.
Since the brackets are normally attached to the sides of the equipment near the front and back of the equipment, the equipment can only be removed from the rack if there is access to the side of the frame, so that the bracket bolts can be removed from the equipment itself. However, when equipment is installed in a frame and the frame is installed in a central office or computer room, normally other frames are installed on either side, making side access to the frame difficult. For example, when there is a failure of one piece of equipment in the frame, it is impossible to remove and replace the failed equipment without taking the frame out of the lineup to achieve side panel access. If the other equipment in the frame is critical, it may be unacceptable to take the frame out of service to perform removal and replacement of a single piece of equipment. In addition, in most cases it requires two people to replace a piece of equipment, one in the front of the frame and one in the back.
One solution to the problem of side access is to use slide rails to mount and support the computer equipment. Typically, the slide rails are mounted directly onto the frame, and then equipment then slides into the frame along the slide rails. However, slide rails are expensive. For example, one set of slide rails may cost in excess of $250. In addition, slide rails use a lot of metal for a relatively simple function, are fairly complex to install and are complicated to manufacture and customize for new hardware. Therefore, what is needed is a different mounting technique for mounting computer equipment to frames.